Tom Hanks Wants To Play A Superhero

Tom Hanks is without a doubt one of the best actors of our time and can easily be called one of the greatest film legends to ever live, the actor has starred in many critically acclaimed films such as CAST AWAY, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, FORREST GUMP and PHILADELPHIA. The latter two of which earned him academy award wins and that’s not counting his multiple nominations and many other prestigious awards he has received.

It comes as quite a surprise then, to hear that Tom Hanks has never been offered any superhero roles from Marvel, DC or otherwise in his long and prosperous acting career. Hanks has revealed whilst promoting his new film CAPTAIN PHILLIPS that in fact he has apparently never even been offered any part in a superhero film whether its as the hero, villain, ally or guy walking across the street. Here is what the actor had to say on the matter:

‘They don’t ask me, man. I keep trying to. Come on. I can do it, I can do it’.

‘Even let me play a bad guy. Let me play the bad guy against Batman. I’ll do anything. Come on, call me. They’ve never asked. What do I gotta do?’.

‘I don’t want to play the guy in the suit who tells the superheroes what’s going on. I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want to say, ‘Well you know, Batman, Captain America, Iron Man – here’s what we’ve discovered.’ I don’t want to be that guy. I want to get in there. I want to play The Flash or something like that and they’ll never give me a chance’.

‘God, I want to throw a shield at somebody, you know? I want that,’ he added.

You can also watch the interview below, the reveal comes around the 04:07 mark:

I find it quite sad that an actor of Hanks’s calibre has never been offered a part in a superhero film despite his clear desire to do it. There are many roles out there that he could play and he would certainly bring a whole new level of talent to the table, wouldn’t Hanks as Lex Luthor in BATMAN VS SUPERMAN be inspired casting? maybe as the original FLASH Jay Garrick? or perhaps even a war buddy of Captain Americas?